The present invention relates to a method for the manufacture of flanged rail-engaging wheels (e.g. steel railway wheels or steel tires for such wheels) from a base metallic material, the wheels including a more wear-resistant layer on the exposed face of that part of the flange facing the wheel tread and/or an outer layer over the tread, thus providing an enhanced frictional engagement between the wheel and the rail that is relatively independent of the weather.
It is a desirable aim in the production of a flanged wheel for a wheel-on-rail wheeled transport system to have a wheel which, in any weather condition, provides good frictional engagement between the wheel and the rail and which has optimum wear resistant properties in the wear-critical region of the flange.
The method of the invention permits railway and like flanged wheels to be manufactured in an economical manner which have, at the side of the flange facing the wheel tread, an exposed layer which is more wear-resistant than the base material and desirably also has a lower frictional resistance with the rail than the base material. Alternatively, or simultaneously, the method of the invention allows the wheel to be provided with a layer exposed at the wheel tread which has a higher frictional resistance with the rail than the base material, which is desirable from the point of view of good driving traction and optionally also is more wear-resistant than the base material.
As examples of materials which can be used for the flange and tread regions may be mentioned, for the flange region, a highly carbonaceous martensitic steel and for the tread region, a martensitic steel with a carbon content of about 0.05%.